Rufus Catch-All

[misstrust]

Comments

[soulus]

Information can't be exchanged unless both parties volunteer.

[It's their loss.]

[misstrust]

Yes. A pity that isn't as common sense to people as I would have thought.

[soulus]

If it's such a struggle, why don't you make it a transaction?

[misstrust]

Because I don't necessarily trust people with the information.

[soulus]

. . . Then asking was fruitless from the start.

[misstrust]

Probably.

[ Dorothy's sigh is quieter. ]

Making an agreement with you in the beginning was fine-- because I knew you'd give me information as long as I did the same.

But now people are... [ She waves a hand ] ... trying to insist it's about trust and relying on each other and I think it's two very different things.

[soulus]

The disruption has always been a matter of necessity. Trust has nothing to do with it.

[misstrust]

I'll drink to that.

[ She's drinking to that. ]

[soulus]

[Meanwhile, he drinks his water for the sake of drinking it.

Ascribing that level of trust to the cause is just asking for disappointment. Taking the good with the bad is one thing, but pulling faith for the sake of shaking answers out of a person by grabbing her hand is nothing more than emotional blackmail—to say nothing of the resultant hurt on either side. There are tidier ways to collect information.]

[misstrust]

[ Indeed there are.

Dorothy stretches after a minute, peering into her empty glass. ]

... Well. Here's to another week.